Former college swimming champion Riley Gaines says she was ambushed and physically attacked by pro-transgender protesters, forcing her to remain barricaded in a classroom for nearly three hours, after she gave a talk on saving women’s sports at San Francisco State University (SFSU) Thursday.
Gaines, a 12-time All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky, became a national spokeswoman against the inclusion of biological males in women’s sports after she was forced to compete against — and share a locker room with — the University of Pennsylvania’s William “Lia” Thomas. Gaines and Thomas tied in one race, but the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) decided the trophy would go to Thomas “simply because they want Thomas to be holding the trophy in all the photos,” reported the Washington Examiner.
At an SFSU event sponsored by Turning Point USA, Gaines gave a speech on her experience with Thomas, arguing that biological men should be excluded from women’s sports.
According to the Daily Mail:
Gaines said the talk itself, which started at around 7:30 p.m., was “really awesome,” with 75 attendees respectfully sharing differing views on transgender athletes in sport.
But as she was leaving the room where the talk was being held she was ambushed by angry trans activists, who rushed into the venue from the hallway outside.
“All of a sudden ambushers swarm in, tons of them,” she said. “They immediately rush to the front of the room where I am, so I’m kind of cornered at a podium at this point.
“They’re screaming in my face. This is the point where I was struck twice … I believe, aiming for my shoulder both times, but hit me the first time on the shoulder, and then the second time it grazed my face.”
Gaines said her alleged attacker was a “transgender” woman, i.e., a man.
An undercover campus police officer finally stepped in and whisked Gaines out of the room. Video of the incident shows that, in the hallway, she continued to be verbally assaulted by protesters, who screamed “trans women are women” and “go the f—k home.”
“Because there was no clear exit out of this hallway we were kind of forced into a side room … where we essentially had to lock ourselves in for three hours,” she told the Mail, adding that the protesters remained outside the room the entire time, “screaming and yelling vulgar and violent things.” They even went so far as to demand payment in exchange for letting her leave.
“The prisoners are running the asylum at SFSU…. I was ambushed and physically hit twice by a man. This is proof that women need sex-protected spaces,” Gaines tweeted Friday. “Still only further assures me I’m doing something right. When they want you silent, speak louder.”
SFSU police issued a statement Friday saying they were “conducting an ongoing investigation into the situation” but that “no arrests” had been made.
The university, meanwhile, has offered no apologies for Gaines’ treatment. In fact, SFSU Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Jamillah Moore sent a post-incident email affirming the school’s unwavering support for “the trans community” and thanking “our students who participated peacefully in Thursday’s event.” Moore also offered support services to those students who still needed to “reflect, process, and begin to heal.”
“We must have different definitions of peaceful,” Gaines tweeted in response.
“I was assaulted. I was extorted and held for random [sic]…. I missed my flight home because I was barricaded in a classroom.”
Gaines told the Mail that “she started to sense something was wrong” when campus “police skipped out on a meeting 90 minutes prior to her speech.”
The police, she claimed, “actually admitted” that “they didn’t feel comfortable asserting themselves in a way that would make them seem as if they were in a position where they could be accused of racism or transphobia.”
Gaines told the paper she plans to sue SFSU over the incident, “to hold these people accountable.”
“I think that what you have to do to make changes in regards to protecting freedoms is to go where it hurts which is the pockets,” she said. “If I weren’t to do something, there would be no repercussions for these people.”
